NZSEE Management Committee would like to invite members to attend an online Special General Meeting to review the Society’s Constitution.
When: Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Where: Online
Recent legislative changes require all incorporated societies to re-register under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 by 5 April 2026. As part of this process, our Society is reviewing its Constitution to ensure it meets the requirements of the new Act.
This review also provides an opportunity to consider the Constitution more broadly, to improve clarity and consistency and to ensure our rules accurately reflect the Society’s current practices.
The attached draft Constitution includes colour-coded highlights to help members identify the types of proposed changes:
- Yellow highlights indicate changes that are mandatory to comply with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022.
- Green highlights indicate edits proposed by the Management Committee to improve clarity, consistency, or alignment with current practices.
A copy of the changes without the markup is available here.
The current rules of the Society may be accessed on our website, for comparison.
Overview of Proposed Management Committee Changes
In addition to the mandatory and recommended updates required under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, the Management Committee has proposed a number of changes to the Constitution. These proposed changes are intended to improve clarity and consistency, and to better align the Constitution with the Society’s current practices and operations.
A summary of the proposed Management Committee changes is outlined below.
- Reviewing clause 2 (Objects) to ensure it aligns with the Society’s current objectives.
- Reviewing the requirements for Student membership.
- Updating Corporate membership arrangements, including the removal of voting rights for nominees of Corporate Affiliates. Corporate Affiliates will no longer have a voting nominee but will receive alternative benefits, such as logo placement on the NZSEE website. This avoids confusion over the status of the nominees for the Corporate Affiliates.
- Updating the process for overdue memberships, reducing the period before forfeiture from 12 months to 6 months overdue, to be consistent with Engineering New Zealand’s practice.
- Clarifying which categories of members are eligible for election to the Management Committee.
- Removing the requirement for co-opted members to have been financial members prior to consideration for appointment to the Management Committee, to allow any special broader representation that would be beneficial.
- Removing references to postal forms for elections and General Meeting notifications.
- Removing the option to pay membership fees by cheque.
- Increasing the quorum for a General Meeting from 10 to 20. And the requirement for members to call for a General Meeting from 10 to 30, given our currently larger membership base.
- Making general wording updates throughout the Constitution to improve clarity, consistency, and relevance.
Proposed Motions:
The Management Committee proposes two motions for the members to vote on separately:
- Motion 1 covers changes that are mandatory or recommended to comply with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and enable re-registration.
- Motion 2 covers additional changes proposed by the Management Committee to improve alignment between the Constitution and how the Society operates today.
Motion 1
President, Pathmanathan Brabhaharan proposes:
“That the Society adopt the updated Constitution as presented, including the changes that are required or recommended to meet the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and allow the Society to re-register under the Act.
That the Management Committee be authorised to make any minor wording or technical changes required by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies to complete the re-registration process, provided these do not change the overall intent of the Constitution.”
Motion 2:
President Pathmanathan Brabhaharan proposes:
“That the Society adopt the additional changes to the Constitution as proposed by the Management Committee, as presented.
These changes are not required by the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and are intended to improve clarity, strengthen governance, and better reflect how the Society currently operates.”
